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NBA Draft Spotlight: Charles Bassey

Hidden on an average Western Kentucky team, Charles Bassey quietly averaged a double-double after reclassifying a year ago.

Position: C

From: Western Kentucky

Class/YOB: Freshman

Height: 6’11

Weight: 245

Wingspan: 7’3

Strengths:

Powerful frame that is built to be in the NBA. Despite his youth, he has broad shoulders and natural strength

Instinctual rebounder who dominates games by creating second chances. Averaged nearly three offensive rebounds a game by carving out space for good positioning on shot attempts

Posts up hard and often. Whenever he has a defender on his back, he buries them deep in the paint before receiving the ball. Has really good feet on the inside and scores on hooks over his left shoulder at a high rate

Interior defense is strong. He isn’t easily moved, contests about everything in his area, and is agile inside the arc

Runs the court for easy baskets. Very similar to Bam Adebayo in how he gets dunks in transition simply by outsprinting opponents

Good touch. Made 45 percent of a small volume of threes and shot 77 percent from the line. Shot a lot more from the outside his last year in high school, but he’s shown the increased range to look forward to as he matures

Weaknesses:

Still very young. Has a grown body, but his game on both ends is still raw

Has to work on more finesse moves in the post. College bigs had no answer for his strength, so his right hooks were enough to score. Based on his footwork, it will just be a matter of time and repetitions before he is more comfortable using counters

Not a great passer. Has a tough time anticipating help and passing out of it

Wants to do more ball-handling on the perimeter, but he’s not technically sound enough as a decision maker. Has a lot of turnovers from taking a dribble or two more than necessary